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'Save me': Toronto woman who died on Mount Everest

Shriya Shah-Klorfine&rsquo;s death on Everest this weekend has raised questions about training and the suitability of the weather.

Shriya Shah-Klorfine, 33, died during her descent from Mount Everest.

Trekking up Mount Everest. (Ralf Dujmovits)

By Josh Tapper and Lesley Ciarula TaylorStaff Reporters

Wed., May 23, 2012

With sherpas supporting her near life-less body in Mount Everest’s “death zone,” Shriya Shah-Klorfine uttered her final words: “Save me.”

The Toronto woman had spent nearly six hours in the icy, oxygen-depleted area near the summit, waiting as hordes of other climbers clambered down from the top on Saturday.

Priya Ahuja, one of Shah-Klorfine’s closest friends, said expedition manager Rishi Raj Kadel told her a strong gust of wind disconnected the 33-year-old amateur climber from her oxygen tank. She succumbed to exhaustion and altitude sickness shortly after.

Before she died, she asked them to save her, Ahuja was told.

“The sherpas tried to help her,” she told the Star on Tuesday. “They held her on their shoulders; they just pulled her 100 more metres and they couldn’t save her.”

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Since Saturday, questions have swirled around the circumstances that led to Shah-Klorfine’s death. She was said to be caught in a traffic jam of 208 people near the summit, most of whom were using a brief spell of good weather as an opportunity to reach the 8,848-metre peak.

Ahuja insists her friend received no warning that, with the massive backlog, it would be dangerous to press onward. Outside Magazine reported Monday two sherpas advised Shah-Klorfine just before 2 p.m. to turn around.

Shah-Klorfine repeatedly refused, saying, “No, I have to go; I have to go,” according to Outside, which had a reporter at Mount Everest over the weekend.

About an hour later, Shah-Klorfine reached the summit, friends told the Star on Monday. By 9:30 p.m., however, Shah’s ninth and final oxygen tank had expired.

She died a half hour later despite the sherpas’ attempts to resuscitate her, Outside reported.

Bikram Lamba, a friend, said Shah-Klorfine’s body has been found and family and friends here are trying to have it repatriated.

Three other climbers, from China, Germany and South Korea, also died Saturday on what is being called one of the deadliest days in Everest’s history.

The last stage of the climb from can take from eight to 12 hours. The final 848 metres is called the “death zone” because of the sparse oxygen and extreme cold.

“An experienced organizer knows how many people are climbing in one day, you know how not to make a traffic jam because of the risk,” famed climber Namgyal Sherpa, who operates Kathmandu-based expedition and trekking company Mountain Consult, told the Star.

“Strong people can climb after 8:30 or 11 o’clock at night” and reach the summit in the morning, he added. “We never go after 10 in the morning.”

Because of the crowd near the summit, some climbers in Shah-Klorfine’s group left as late as 2:30 p.m., the Associated Press reported.

Less experienced climbers are advised to plan several months in advance to work with an instructor at base camp to prepare for the climb, Namgyal said.

An inexperienced climber, Shah-Klorfine clocked seven-hour training days for two years, running 19 kilometres with a 45-pound pack and scaling indoor rock-climbing walls, but had never tackled a mountain as daunting as Everest.

Nepal places no restrictions on the number of people who can climb Everest at one time.

“The Nepali government has to control this,” Ahuja said. “They shouldn’t allow so many people to climb to the summit at the same time.”

Last weekend, climbers saw the first sign of good weather in the short climbing season, which runs from late March to early June. Indeed, conditions have been so difficult this season that Namgyal has led several rescues of people who were stranded at 6,400 metres.

“The snow conditions are not good,” he said. “A lot of people ran into problems.”

But with good weather forecast for next weekend, about 200 climbers are expected to reach for the summit, despite Saturday’s death toll.

“The climbers have received the permits to climb within specific dates,” Nepal’s tourism ministry official Bal Krishna Ghimire told the Associated Press.

“We cannot say who gets to get to the summit on which dates because of the unpredictable weather. When weather clears up, they all want to benefit.”

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